The Möllendorf family (also: Möllendorff, Moellendorff) has been prominent German noble family in the history of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

and

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. The von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff family descends from an adopted son (born Wilamowitz) of a member of the Möllendorf family.

History

In 1427 two members of the family are mentioned in a list of Privy Councillors of the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg () was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that, having electoral status although being quite poor, grew rapidly in importance after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and then came ...

who signed a treaty with

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

: "Jaspar Gans zu Putlitz, Achim Gans his son, Herr Hans v. Quitzow, Bernd Rohr, Hans v. Rohr Old Otto

von Blumenthal The Blumenthal family is a Lutheran and Roman Catholic German noble family, originally from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other (unrelated) families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families (quite a few of them ...

, Ebel v. Möllendorf, Beteke v. Kehrberg, Kone v. Retzdorff, Achim v. Möllendorf"

Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf (7 January 1724 – 28 January 1816) was a Generalfeldmarschall of the Kingdom of Prussia. Life and career Möllendorf was born in Lindenberg (Prignitz), now a part of Wittenberge, in the Margraviate of ...

(1724–1816) distinguished himself as an officer at the battles of Leuthen, Hochkirch and

Torgau Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen. Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies first met near ...

, and as a major-general at Burkersdorf and

Brix Degrees Brix (symbol °Bx) is a measure of the dissolved solids in a liquid, based on its specific gravity, and is commonly used to measure dissolved sugar content of a solution. One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose solute dissolved in 100 grams ...

. He became Governor of Berlin in 1783, and General in 1787. In 1793 he was promoted to ''

Generalfeldmarschall ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (; from Old High German ''marahscalc'', "marshal, stable master, groom"; ; often abbreviated to ''Feldmarschall'') was a rank in the armies of several German states and the Holy Roman Empire, (''Reichsgeneralfeldmarsch ...

'' (Field Marshal), but was now too old for hard campaigns. He was captured at Auerstädt (1806). He died in 1816. In retirement he adopted three great-grandsons of one of his sisters, Hugo, Ottocar and Arnold von Wilamowitz. Their descendants, also distinguished, are called von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. Classical philologist

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (22 December 1848 – 25 September 1931) was a German classical philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literatur ...

(1848–1931) was a member of this family. Another member of the family, Johann Karl Wolf Dietrich von Moellendorff (1791–1860) was born at his father's estate Rheinsberg, entered military service during the Napoleonic wars and was captured at the retreat after the

Battle of Auerstädt A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

. From 1810 he served in the Guards in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, and distinguished himself at the conquest of Paris in 1814. In 1848 he was Major-General and commander of a brigade in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

responsible for the protection of the Royal Palace on March 18 (see

Revolutions of 1848 in the German states In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elemen ...

). He retired from active duty in 1857.Poten in ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'', Bd 22, p. 119-120
/ref> Paul Georg von Möllendorff (1847–1901) was a German linguist and diplomat.

Otto Franz von Möllendorff Otto Franz von Möllendorff (24 December 1848 – 17 August 1903) was a German diplomat, traveller, and a naturalist who collected specimens during his travels. He took a special interest in the molluscs. He was a brother of the diplomat Paul Georg ...

(1848–1903) was a German scientist, a

malacologist Malacology, from Ancient Greek μαλακός (''malakós''), meaning "soft", and λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (molluscs or mollusks), the second-largest ...

. Willi von Möllendorf (1872–1934) was a composer of

quarter tone A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (orally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...

music. Wichard Georg Otto von Moellendorff (1881–1937) was a German engineer and economist born in Hong Kong as the son of Consul Otto von Moellendorff. In the Nazi era Horst von Möllendorff (1906-1992) was a popular cartoonist. Ulrike von Möllendorff (born 1939) is a German journalist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mollendorf German noble families